{"product_id":"harem-the-world-behind-the-veil","title":"Harem: The World Behind the Veil","description":"224 pp. \"This book explores harems all over the world, focusing on the celebrated Seraglio of Turkey's Topkapi Palace as a paradigm for all. We are shown the slave market and boudoirs of sultans, the daily routines of the odalisques - their baths, clothes and appetites - and the peculiar lives of the eunuchs who guarded and controlled them; all this alongside the splendour and depravity of the sultans, masters of the harem, whose rule was absolute.;The author also looks at the polygamous households of ordinary Middle Eastern families. She looks at their marital customs, child-rearing, medical practices, superstitions and the expression of desire and jealousy.;Finally, the book portrays how this Eastern institution invaded the Victorian imagination in the form of decoration, costume and art, and how Western ideas, in turn, came to erode a system that seemed all-powerful. The text is illustrated with Orientalist paintings, Turkish woodcuts and miniatures.\"","brand":"Abbeville Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":20536284545094,"sku":"2202127","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1232\/9510\/products\/2202127.jpg?v=1571426022","url":"https:\/\/ym-demo.myshopify.com\/products\/harem-the-world-behind-the-veil","provider":"Yesterday's Muse","version":"1.0","type":"link"}